𝐬𝐮𝐞 𝐦𝐞 - 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐡

04

When Olivia Hale had told her mother that Matty was busy with his job, she was unknowingly right about it. Matty Cash didn't have a 'normal' job but it was still one that kept him busy with very little time to himself. Training sessions practically every day, games two, sometimes three times a week at the busiest of times and always trying to be the very best that he could be. It meant that he didn't have much time to relax, party and do what most other people his age were doing. It's not that he didn't like his job, he loved it but it was nights like the night before that made him wish that he could have more of them.

Completely sober after only consuming one alcoholic drink the night before, Matty made sure that he was ready for training before waking up his housemate and teammate, Jack Grealish for the car ride to the training centre.

When Matty had woken up that morning, he woke up to a text message from an unknown number but after reading the text and realising that it contained the details of what had happened in the person's life relating to a fake boyfriend, Matty came to the conclusion that it was Olivia. He had agreed to continue on with the act of being her fake boyfriend and although he wasn't yet sure if it was a genius or stupid idea, he couldn't wait to find out.

"So you're some random girl's fake boyfriend?" Jack asked as Matty drove his car along the roads that were still new to him, having only moved to Birmingham from Nottingham a few weeks prior.

"I had to step in Jack, how was I supposed to know that her ex-boyfriend wasn't some sort of psychopathic killer?" Matty protested as he pushed his foot down onto the brake and stopped the car in front of a red light before he looked to his new friend and the team captain who only had his eyebrow raised at him.

"How do you know that she isn't some sort of psychopathic killer?" Jack questioned and it was enough to stop Matty from speaking for a few seconds as he thought about what it was that his new friend had just said.

"I could take her." The taller of the two spoke fairly confidently as he started the car again and drove off, in the direction of training.

He knew that his friend thought that it was stupid but Matty didn't care. He was new to Birmingham and Olivia seemed like a genuine enough girl. He wasn't sure why he felt so strongly about helping a stranger but part of him felt like it was something to do with how vulnerable she looked in front of her ex-boyfriend. He knew the feeling well and if he could help take the edge off for someone then that's what he was going to do.

"Oh, by the way, I'm going to meet up with her after training for a coffee so you might need to see if John can give you a lift home. Probably should have let you drive but you weren't out of bed early enough." Matty gave his friend a smirk before pulling into the training centre car park and parking his expensive car. Jack groaned as Matty got out of the car, causing Matty to laugh on his way out.

***

The footballer sat at a table for two in the window of the small coffee shop with his mug of coffee steaming in front of him. He tapped his foot against the hard wooden floors, a sudden wave of nerves washing over him. He couldn't deny the fact that Olivia was beautiful but he had to remind himself that it was all fake. Nothing was going to happen between the two of them and so he had no real reason to be nervous.

"Hi, sorry I'm late!" Olivia came rushing over to the table that Matty was sitting at, a takeaway cup in her hand and dressed head to toe in gym attire. Matty smiled at the fact that she was dressed in her workout clothes as he too was wearing his Aston Villa tracksuit.

The two had arranged to meet up over coffee to get their story straight for the Hale family dinner that was happening at the weekend. He normally waited at least a few months before meeting a girl's parents but here he was, having known Olivia all of five minutes and already planning to meet her entire family.

"Okay, so obviously we have our story about how we met, good thinking by the way," the brunette girl sent the man a quick wink, making him smile at her confidence. He compared her to how she had been the night before. She seemed so timid and confined when she was around Jordan but when he wasn't around, she was a completely different person and that told Matty all that he needed to know about their relationship.

"How long have we been dating for? I told my Mum that we've been taking it slow." That was just one of the many questions that Olivia had written down to go through with Matty, wanting absolutely zero holes in their story. The worst thing for Olivia would be for Jordan or her mum to doubt or be suspicious of her relationship with Matty. She had a point to prove.

"Two months? We've been talking for a bit and I've been regularly visiting Birmingham from Nottingham until I moved here for work a few weeks ago so most of it was long distance." Matty suggested and Olivia nodded her head, taking a note of everything that he had just said. It was a perfectly plausible story and seemed to be realistic. Olivia liked the way that Matty was thinking.

"Job?" She prompted, still not being aware of who he was despite her father and brother being huge Aston Villa fans.

"Footballer for Villa." Olivia's head snapped up at his words and she didn't know how she hadn't realised it before but she immediately recognised who he was after he had said that.

Her dad had a group chat with his two kids on Whatsapp and the majority of the time, it was just him sending links to anything to do with the football club. One of the most recent links was the club's Twitter account confirming the signing of the boy who was sitting in front of her.

"Matty Cash!" She exclaimed, his name rolling off her tongue with ease and Matty had no idea what was wrong with him but it sent shivers down his spine. He put it down to the fact that the door had just opened, letting in a draft.

"I'm a YouTuber and podcaster so it's nice to know that neither one of us are have normal jobs." Olivia stated and Matty wasn't sure if she was being serious or sarcastic but he let out a chuckle anyway, her personality being one that he admired.

The rest of the afternoon was spent with the two of them going over their stories and getting to know everything about each other, right down to the itty gritty details. They had a big day come Sunday and neither one of them could slip up.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*
a/n: double update for you all! Who am I?

I've not been super active on wattpad recently so, if you have any books that you've written that I've yet to check out, please don't be afraid to drop the names of them here for me to check out :)

Enjoy and stay safe!

Lots of love, e x

written: 7th January 2021
published: 21st July 2021